1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique that allows position information, at the time of image capture, to be assigned from outside to images held by an image capturing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, addition of position information to images captured by an image capturing device, such as a digital camera, has been performed using log data generated by a GPS logger. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-91290 discloses a method according to which a PC adds position information to images by acquiring log data generated by a GPS logger, acquiring images generated by a digital camera, and matching the log data with the images based on respective generation dates and times.
In the '290 document referenced above, in order to add position information to images, log data and images initially need to be copied to a PC from different devices, requiring the user to carry out complex operations.
In view of this, the inventor of the present invention conceived to add position information to images by the digital camera and the GPS logger communicating directly, rather than via a PC. However, image capture and communication both generally impose a high processing load, and cannot readily be executed in parallel. Thus, it was considered preferable to inhibit image capture when the digital camera is communicating with the GPS logger. On the other hand, it is conceivably preferable to continue the acquisition of log data generated by the GPS logger, even when the GPS logger is communicating with the digital camera. This is because it is possible that the GPS logger is performing matching with another digital camera or that the log data is being used to indicate the movement trajectory of the GPS logger. This being the case, there will be no images to which to add position information acquired after the start of communication with the digital camera. Thus, it is inefficient to perform matching using all log data recorded on the GPS logger.